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| Genre | Comedy |
|---|---|
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Home station | BBC Home Service |
| Starring | Spike Milligan Harry Secombe Peter Sellers Michael Bentine (1951–1953) |
| Created by | Spike Milligan |
| Produced by | Peter Eton (101 episodes) Dennis Main Wilson (38 episodes) Pat Dixon (29 episodes) Charles Chilton (25 episodes) John Browell (23 episodes) Roy Speer (14 episodes) Leslie Bridgmont (4 episodes) Tom Ronald (3 episodes) Jacques Brown (1 episode) |
| Narrated by |
Wallace Greenslade Andrew Timothy Denys Drower |
| Recording studio | Camden Theatre, London |
| No. of episodes | 238 plus 12 specials |
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1951, was titled Crazy People; subsequent series had the title The Goon Show, a title inspired, according to Spike Milligan, by a Popeye character.
The show's chief creator and main writer was Spike Milligan. The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns, catchphrases and an array of bizarre sound effects. Some of the later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other shows for decades. Many elements of the show satirised contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of show business, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, education, class structure, literature and film.
The show was released internationally through the BBC Transcription Services (TS). It was heard regularly from the 1950s in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India and Canada, although these TS versions were frequently edited to avoid controversial subjects.NBC began broadcasting the programme on its radio network from the mid-1950s. The programme exercised a considerable influence on the development of British and American comedy and popular culture. It was cited as a major influence by The Beatles and the American comedy team The Firesign Theatre as well as Monty Python and many others.
The series was devised and written by Spike Milligan with the regular collaboration of other writers including Larry Stephens, Eric Sykes (who co-wrote most of the episodes in Series 5), Maurice Wiltshire and John Antrobus, initially under the supervision of Jimmy Grafton.
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